1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to surface conditioning vehicles such as those carrying material spreaders and/or snow removal devices, and more particularly relates to a new and improved apparatus for synchronized material spreading which indexes certain characteristics of a material delivery system such as the spread width of at least a second material in response to a change in the width of spread of a first, or triggering, material and automated control of surface conditioning equipment based on actual surface conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surface conditioning vehicles include material spreaders that are used in many applications. For example, they may be used to provide pesticide and fertilizer spreaders in agricultural applications, as well as vehicles for the control of ice and snow on roadways and may include snow plows, blowers, and material spreaders, alone or in combination. In either of these general applications, often it is desirable to spread more than one material simultaneously in either a synchronous or asynchronous manner in either a predetermined ratio or in random proportions to a surface.
The materials to be applied to a surface can be all liquids, all solids, or combinations thereof. Generally, these materials can be referred to materials A & B. The widths of the plurality of materials are manually controlled independently such that the user must decrease or increase the spread-width for each material separately.
For example, in a pre-wetting arrangement, both liquid and granular materials are typically dispersed by a common device such as a spinner disk. In this example, the quantity of liquid is small compared to the amount of granular material. Because of material characteristics, such as density, viscosity, granularity, and flowability, and desired driveability results it is sometimes advantageous to have a separate delivery system for each material. This liquid and granular combination also helps control the bounce and scatter of the granular materials.
In spreading materials on roadways and runways for the control of ice and snow, oftentimes both granular and liquid material are desired to be spread simultaneously. In many instances, each material has its own delivery system. The operator sets the spread-width of the granular material and the spread-width of the liquid material independently of one another. In the event the width of the road changes, or the operator changes the width of spread for any of a variety of reasons, such as allowing a vehicle to pass, the operator must separately act to reduce the spread-width of the granular material and the spread-width of the liquid material.
The problem with the conventional material spreading systems resides in the difficulty in accurately adjusting the spread-width of each material, in addition to the time and attention it takes for the operator to modify the spread-width while driving the vehicle.
A similar problem exists for operators of surface conditioning vehicles which include snow plows and snow blowers, especially in residential areas. During heavy snow conditions, the conventional plows push the snow aside to one side or the other and thus can create a substantial pile of snow in front of driveways. This pile is often compacted and difficult to remove. A recent solution to this problem has been to equip the vehicle with at least one hydraulically actuated discharge blocking plate on at least one of the ends of the snow blade. The vehicle operator may raise and lower these plates to close off the blade discharge path as the plow passes driveways or other features where snow discharge is undesirable. The drawback of this arrangement is that the system is manually controlled and thus requires constant operator vigilance and action to lower and raise the blocking plates.
It is against this background that the significant improvements and advancement of the present invention have taken place in the field of surface conditioning vehicles, and particularly material spreaders and snow removal controls.